Job title: Deputy Director of Marketing
Job salary: £105,000 - £120,000 per annum
Job location: London, SE1 (hybrid working, minimum 2 days per week in the office)
Deadline: TBC
Purpose of the job
This is an outstanding opportunity for a senior marketing leader to play a pivotal role in one of the UK’s most purposeful and high-profile national campaigns. As Deputy Director of Marketing you will be a central figure in shaping and delivering Smart Energy GB’s marketing activity: a campaign that reaches every household in Great Britain and directly supports the UK’s 2030 clean power goals.
You will work closely with and deputise for the Director of Marketing across all marketing functions, helping to manage a marketing budget of c.£25m. You will provide direct leadership to three senior heads: the Head of Brand, Campaigns and Digital; the Head of Media; and the Head of Marketing Strategy. Together, these teams are responsible for delivering integrated, evidence-led marketing activity across all paid and owned channels.
You’ll be a key member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), contributing to organisational decision-making well beyond the marketing function. You will also bring a strong, futurefacing perspective on the role of AI in marketing, championing its responsible and ambitious adoption across the directorate in planning, creative, media and measurement.
Key tasks and responsibilities
Strategic leadership and planning
Support the Director of Marketing in setting and communicating a compelling vision for the marketing directorate: what it needs to achieve, how it works best with the rest of the organisation, and how it needs to evolve to meet future challenges
Contribute to SEGB’s annual business plans and budget: KPIs, investment rationale and measurement framework, as part of the roadmap to 2030
Lead the annual marketing plan in collaboration with the Deputy Director of Specialist Audiences, ensuring it is strategically coherent, robustly evidenced and clearly articulated to staff, agencies and key stakeholders
Attend key governance meetings, board presentations and external stakeholder engagements, presenting with authority and confidence, and deputising for the Director of Marketing as required
Provide senior sign-off on briefs, campaigns, media plans and website plans; ensure all activity is properly informed, pre-tested where appropriate, and rigorously tracked
Campaign delivery and integration
Oversee integrated delivery of marketing across all paid and owned channels, instilling the highest standards of creativity and quality, a culture of continuous optimisation, and demonstrable return on investment
Work closely with Insight, Communications (PR) and Corporate Affairs to ensure activity is strategically integrated, claims are accurate and substantiated, and we deliver excellent digital service through our website, search and social capabilities
Hold senior agency relationships with creative ambition and commercial rigour (AMV for creative, T&P for media, Gravity Road for digital, Clerkswell for website)
Work alongside the Deputy Director of Specialist Audiences to ensure campaign materials are adapted for microbusiness and vulnerable audiences, and appropriately tailored across England, Scotland and Wales
AI, technology and measurement
Champion responsible and ambitious adoption of AI across the directorate: spanning strategy, creative production/optimisation, media planning, AEO/GEO and measurement
Lead the team’s AI upskilling agenda: training needs, implications for roles, and ensuring tools are adopted purposefully and with appropriate governance
Deploy learnings from Marketing Mix Modelling, campaign and audience tracking and pre-testing, working with the Head of Marketing Strategy and the Insight team
Keep marketing function at the forefront of modern paid media: programmatic, audience targeting, digital auditing, responsible media and carbon measurement
Budget and financial management
Oversight of the c.£25m marketing budget: attend budget-holder meetings, serve as primary contact for Finance and Operations, and provide summaries and escalations
Ensure highest standards of procurement across all marketing expenditure, with spend that is benchmarked, demonstrably effective and able to withstand close scrutiny from funders, the board and governance groups
People, culture and development
Line management to the Head of Brand, Campaigns and Digital; Head of Media; and Head of Marketing Strategy, supporting them to deliver excellent results and to develop as senior leaders
Work with the Director of Marketing and Deputy Director of Specialist Audiences on recruitment, talent development and training the team needs to thrive
Develop and implement our DEI strategy: how the team operates internally, and how our campaigns represent and reach the diverse audiences we serve
Be an active, constructive member of the SLT, contributing positively to the broader leadership and management of SEGB
Skills, experience and competencies
We are looking for a senior marketer who combines strategic depth with integrated experience and commercial breadth. You will be a credible, respected leader; someone who can operate across the full complexity of this role with agility and ambition. Specifically:
A bright, strategic operator. A proven track record of national-scale marketing, the ability to set clear direction across a complex multi-channel programme, and the commercial rigour to plan, defend and optimise a significant budget. Experience in low-interest or governmentmandated behaviour change categories is a distinct advantage.
Digital skills and AI fluency. Strong command of the full paid and owned digital landscape: AEO/GEO, website strategy, content optimisation, paid social and search, programmatic and responsible media. Familiarity with AI tools in creative, media and content and a clear strategic understanding of how AI is reshaping planning, production and discoverability.
Breadth and agility. This is a broad role: brand and performance, ATL and digital, consumer and B2B, strategy and delivery. You will have led large, multi-discipline teams and senior agency relationships across creative, media and digital. You will be equally comfortable presenting to a board, developing a media brief, working through an insight debrief or coaching a direct report. You will bring the interpersonal skills to build trusted relationships across a wide range of senior internal and external stakeholders.
Must have an appreciation for the mission and activities of Smart Energy GB, and genuine enthusiasm for the challenge ahead!